Dimple's phone beeped.
Where are you?
"Celia, finally!" she said to Rishi as she typed back:
At Rios. Where have YOU been??
Her phone beeped again.
Long story.
Dimple waited, but there didn't seem to be more forthcoming. Curiouser and curiouser.
Come join us , she typed. Rishi's brother is here too. Warning: He's very . . . teenagery.
Be there in 5.
Five minutes? Had Celia been walking around the neighborhood? Dimple set her phone facedown and turned to Rishi. "She'll be here in a couple of minutes."
"Oh." He took a sip of his water. "Was she already out with the Aberzombies? Everything okay?"
Dimple shrugged. A small part of her was glad to have this mystery to distract her from the tiny, annoying voice. "I have no idea, but I guess we'll find out."
Ashish was watching them intently from across the table, but when she met his eye, he looked away.
The door dinged and Celia walked in, looking harried. Her face was flushed from the damp cold, her hair unkempt. She still looked fabulous as ever, in a long fuchsia trench coat and wedge peep-toe booties. Huge beaded hoop earrings sparkled at her ears. She smiled when she saw Dimple and Rishi and made her way over, unbuttoning the trench coat. She looked so effortlessly "movie star," Dimple wanted to hate her. But she looked so on edge-her eyes darting every which way, landing on Ashish for a brief second, and then on Rishi, and then lifting off-that Dimple couldn't bring herself to. "Hey," she said instead. "There you are!"
Celia hovered by the booth instead of sitting next to Ashish. She walked a step forward and then half turned back toward Dimple. "Um, can you-can you meet me in the bathroom?"
Dimple frowned. "Are you okay?"
"Just . . ." Celia pointed in the general direction of the bathrooms, a pained smile on her face. "Please?"
Dimple nodded and watched her scurry off.
"What the heck was all that about?" Rishi asked, staring after Celia.
"I have no idea. . . ." Dimple slid out of the booth after Rishi. "I'll be right back." She hurried to the right corner of the restaurant and walked into the tiny bathrooms.
Celia stood watching her in the mirror, her caramel-colored hair all shiny in the recessed lighting. Dark shadows pooled under her eyes. She turned around slowly, her hands in a nervous tangle before her.
"What's going on?" Dimple asked, hurrying forward to put her hand on Celia's arm. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did Evan do something?"
"AshishandIhookedupdon'thateme." Celia looked at her, eyes huge, expression tense.
Dimple wondered if she was supposed to understand that. Was it French? And then Celia's giant nonsense word began to break apart into smaller, more intelligible ones. Ashish and I hooked up. Don't hate me. Dimple's hand fell off Celia's arm. She stared at her friend, who was easily five inches taller in those ridiculous heels. "What?"
"It's true." Celia paced the length of the bathroom like an upset hen, her open trench coat flapping behind her like a large wing. "I'm sorry. It just . . . happened."
"But . . . you don't even know him." Already Dimple knew this wasn't true. How did she know this? Because Celia, a non-Indian, had pronounced his name right. Not Ash-ish like it was written, but Ah-sheesh . Also, and a bigger point, Dimple was fairly sure she hadn't even told Celia Ashish's name.
Celia stopped her pacing and looked at Dimple. "Except I do. We've met before."
"What the heck are you talking about?" Rishi said, staring at his brother. His sixteen-year-old brother, who was apparently getting more action than him, with girls he barely knew. Who even was this kid?
Ashish pushed a hand through his floppy hair. When a curl fell into his eye, he didn't push it away. Rishi wanted to slap it off his head. "Dude, you know I've come to the city before for basketball camp. And that girl's, like, a party animal. She was at every party I went to last summer."
Rishi threw his hands up. "So, obviously, when you saw her again, the appropriate first response was to hook up with her. In the time it took me to take a shower. "
Ashish looked up at him defensively. "We didn't actually do it . There wasn't time for that. We just did other stuff. You were gone almost forty minutes!"
Rishi groaned and put his head in his hands.
"How fast did that have to happen?" Dimple asked. She was genuinely curious. How did that even work? "Did you just, like, say hi and then latch on to each other's faces?"